that's a look at the big board down 86 points, people not feeling good about the fiscal cliff. senate majority leader this morning said it looks like that is where we are headed, certainly investors don't like to hear that. the white house has said that the president has made separate calls to congressional leaders as he heads back to dc to try to deal with the deadline. >>> this morning the labor department reported a better than expected report on the number of jobless claims, 350,000 people filed for first time unemployment benefits last week. that's down 12,000 from the week before. most economists expect that to hold steady from the week before but they warn that decline may be blown up because government offices were closed monday and tuesday. >>> and more sign that the economy is improving. the commerce department said sales of new homes rose 4.4% in november. americans bought new homes at the fastest pace in more than two and a half years. they said demand was up more than 15% from a year ago. >>> consumer confidence has fallen because people are so worried about that f